Sudan denies death row mother will be freed

Daniel Wani and his daughter Maya. They are pictured at the women's prison in Omdurman, where Mr Wani's wife, Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, is being held on death row.

Khartoum: Sudan has denied a Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for apostasy will be freed soon, saying quotes attributed to a Foreign Ministry official had been taken out of context.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was sentenced to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in place since 1983 and outlaws conversions under pain of death.

Foreign Ministry under-secretary Abdullah al-Azraq told media outlets on Saturday that Ishag "will be freed within days in line with legal procedure that will be taken by the judiciary and the ministry of justice".

But the Foreign Ministry said the release of the 27-year-old, who gave birth to a baby girl in prison on Tuesday, depended on whether a court accepted an appeal request made by her defence team.

A ministry statement said Mr Azraq actually told media on Saturday "that the defence team of the concerned citizen has appealed the verdict ... and if the appeals court rules in her favour, she will be released".

"The government does not interfere in the work of the judiciary because it is an independent body," the ministry said.

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"Some media took what the under-secretary said out of context, changing the meaning of what he said."

After Mr Azraq's comment on Saturday, Ishag's husband, Daniel Wani, said he didn't believe she would be freed.

"No one has contacted me and I don't think it will happen. We have submitted an appeal but they have not looked at it yet, so how is it that they will release her?" he said.

Under Sudan's interpretation of sharia, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man, and any such relationship is regarded as adulterous.

Her case sparked international condemnation, with British Prime Minister David Cameron denouncing the "barbaric" sentence.

Mr Wani, a US citizen, visited Ishag and the baby on Thursday after being denied access earlier in the week and said that both were in good health.